4 ms·
> FTR, much more controversial than saying Holden was a whiny kid, I found Frodo Baggins to be largely insufferable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying LOTR.
by ci5er 8y ago
> FTR, much more controversial than saying Holden was a whiny kid, I found Frodo Baggins to be largely insufferable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying LOTR.
Fair enough. I also found Frodo to be (largely) insufferable, and I also enjoyed LOTR. I just never "got" Catcher in the Rye, the way I expected that I was expected to.
EDIT: And maybe this is a sign of my immaturity ... that I expect myself to "get" novels that resonate with other people with different life experiences and different brains. I have a similar (personal internal) response when I share a novel that resonates with me with a super smart friend, and they shrug and say, "and"? ... Maybe I'm just not built to understand novels in the same way what most people are (and that's ok...)
- labster 8y agoI don't think you're that weird. I judge visual art by the amount of emotional effect it has on me. A well-written novel can be a way of teaching the unteachable, giving you a deep truth. But maybe you already know that truth? Death Note fell flat for me because its core philosophical questions were already solved in my mind. Or maybe your solution is different? Atlas Shrugged is deep enough, but the opposite of a deep truth is another deep truth. Or you're just not ready to hear that story yet; the nostalgia level in My Antonia made no sense at all to me as a modernist teenager.
- darkerside 8y agoCould be the opposite too. They say a book won't teach you anything you don't already know. I don't think that's literally true, but I do think it's easy to miss what you don't realize is there, and it's why books reward rereading as you age and mature.